Get involved with Sex Week!

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Sex Week is not only for sexually active students. Sex Week is just as much for those practicing abstinence. The possibility of practicing a sex-positive form of abstinence will be explored in addition to sex education methods that teach abstinence without denying that sexuality is fundamental to the human experience.

Sex Week will include programming that will stimulate discussion around the historical roots and manifestations of ideas about virginity, including its often gendered connections to religion and the prescribed set of sexual behaviors generally associated with "losing" or "keeping" one's virginity. Students will be invited to explore and articulate what virginity means to them physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and the concept of consent will be vitally important to arriving at an understanding of what virginity means for members of our community.

Sex Week is for LGBTQ, asexual, and straight students. Every program we host will be in a safe space and friendly towards the LGBTQ community, and several events will cover topics relating to LGBTQ sexuality. In addition, asexuality, the absence of sexual attraction, will be embraced as an identity category along the spectrum of human sexuality, rather than as a lack of sexual orientation.

Sex Week will include programming that encourages and celebrates safe sexual practices, including usage of condoms and birth control. Sex Week will inform people on how to obtain various forms of contraception, as well as how to avoid and treat STIs. Our programming is committed to being medically accurate and will discuss how to talk to one's doctor about sex.

Sex Week will include programming that is relevant to people along the gender spectrum. In addition to having hospitality towards all genders, Sex Week will foster discussions about the theory and history behind gender roles in our culture and the expectations those create for interpersonal and societal relationships. This will include discussion about prescriptive versions of masculinity and femininity and their healthier, more sustainable alternatives, as well as the limits put on individuals because of their gender role performance.

In keeping with the WHO’s definition of sexual health, SEAT recognizes that pleasure is a key element of the sexual experience. Sex Week will include events that teach participants how to define what they want and communicate that to their partners in a way that makes sexual activity pleasurable for all involved.

Sexuality is an important part of the human experience. To make the best sexual health decisions, we need to have the best information. SEAT strives to empower students by giving them information necessary to make good choices. This means providing a holistic understanding of sexuality that includes historical, cultural, and societal perspectives, in addition to basic health and safety information. Sex Week will include events that acknowledge the value of the student voice and the autonomy of every person.

Ideas about sexuality vary across time and across cultural contexts. How we think about sex is influenced by the religious beliefs and social norms that surround us. Through events like our Cross-Culture (S)explorations series and our annual events on religion and sexuality, Sex Week attempts to look at sexuality in its specific cultural contexts and generate discussion about cultural similarities and differences.